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Corbett school bond deserves voter support: Editorial endorsement

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Randy Trani, superintendent of the Corbett School District, gives a tour of district property needing seismic bracing and other safety-related work. Corbett is seeking voter approval of a $9.4 million capital bond in the May primary election.
(Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

Last fall, Corbett voters rejected a $15 million school bond, drop-kicking the proposal so firmly that it may have sailed across the Columbia River Gorge and landed near a hiking trail somewhere.

The Corbett School Board took that message to heart. The board’s new proposal, a $9.4 million bond measure facing voters this May, is a trimmed-down request to replace a decrepit building and make a handful of other essential capital improvements. Voters should approve the bond and address this fundamental matter of student safety.

The Corbett School District, about 20 miles east of Portland, serves more than 1,200 students on one campus in an unincorporated part of town. Its oldest building is the middle school, built in 1923 and easiest to see from the Historic Columbia River Highway. Though the building surely looked marvelous to any flapper driving by in a Model T Ford, it’s now showing its age.

And by “showing its age,” we mean, “it might make Multnomah County’s downtown courthouse look seismically sound by comparison.”

The middle school is constructed of hollow-clay tiles, which fare poorly in earthquakes. Its seismic retrofits appear insufficient to account for walls that were never properly attached to roofs or foundations. Peeling lead paint and asbestos fibers join the parade of horribles.

Corbett’s new bond would allow the district to replace the 1923 building, working with the State Historic Preservation Office to offset the impact. Corbett high schoolers would move into the new building, and middle schoolers would occupy the current high school space, according to the district. The bond would also fund fire/seismic upgrades and basic energy-efficiency improvements for the cafeteria and a few other parts of campus.

Gone from this bond request are some of the line items in last year’s failed measure, including land acquisition and a more extensive gym renovation. What remains is about as bare-bones as a bond proposal gets.

What’s more, this bond won’t raise property tax bills. At $1.71 per $1,000 of assessed value, it would replace an expiring 1994 school bond that paid for a new elementary school and keep annual costs steady at about $270 a year for a voter with a home assessed at $160,000.

The Corbett School District community is in the middle of a vigorous and sometimes uncomfortable debate about growth, open enrollment and its charter school. It accepts more transfer students than most other districts, a decision that polarizes public opinion: Some say the small district can offer a more robust program by accepting outside students, which is correct; others see the practice as a form of empire building, which is a matter of perception.

This bond is not designed to resolve that debate. Though the new building will accommodate the community’s own population growth and provide more space than the current cramped classrooms, it’s not big enough to enable a massive influx of out-of-district students. Mostly, this bond would allow Corbett students to go to school in a safe building – a priority worthy of universal support.